International Mobility Solutions Partner Profiles

Through our partnership with ROC Wheels, wheelchairs that would typically cost up to $4,000 are built for $300 at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. ROC Wheels utilizes physical therapists, wheelchair specialists, and volunteers who custom fit each recipient to their wheelchair. Each chair is configurable to adapt to children with disabilities ranging from mild to severe.

Schools and churches are used to set up full-scale seating and positioning operations, complete with fitting stations, custom fabrication workshops and special care areas. Parents and caregivers are trained in wheelchair operation and taught how to adjust the wheelchair as their child grows.

ROC Wheels believes in empowering people to help themselves. It is their goal to work with highly qualified people in the developing nations to set up wheelchair manufacturing operations within their own country. One success story is the Kids First Vietnam ROC Chair production facility that is now producing wheelchairs for children in Vietnam.

ROC Chair Features

• Therapeutic Tray provides a place to eat and play
• 45 Degrees of Tilt-in Space for support
• 180 Degrees of Recline
• Adjustable Head Support
• Trunk Supports
• Adjustable Handle Bar
• Multi-Adjust Foot Rest
• Adjustable Wheel Base and Wheel Size
• Contoured Seating for Comfort

ROC Wheels Inc. - 4135 Valley Commons Dr, Suite D, Bozeman, MT, 59718 - 406-556-8065  www.rocwheels.org

Whirlwind Wheelchair International

Mission: Whirlwind Wheelchair International works to make it possible for every person in the developing world who needs a wheelchair to obtain one that will lead to maximum personal independence and integration into society. In order to fulfill this mission, Whirlwind seeks to give wheelchair riders a central role in all of its projects and activities.

Whirlwind Wheelchair International grew out of the work of Ralf Hotchkiss, paraplegic engineer and wheelchair designer. Since 1980, Hotchkiss has traveled the globe designing wheelchairs that could be built in developing countries from locally available materials.

Whirlwind's flagship model is the active adult manual wheelchair, the RoughRiderÔ^.

• Locally repairable
• Ultra stable
• Comfortable
• Offers individual fit

The RoughRiderÔ has made it possible for people who need a wheelchair to be mobile in the rough urban and rural conditions of developing countries. While standard wheelchairs are of limited use off smooth surfaces, the RoughRiderÔ provides a safe, comfortable ride, broadens the user's horizons, and makes it possible to participate in many activities that previously were impossible. 

Since 2003, Whirlwind has implemented a franchise strategy to promote regional production of high volume high quality wheelchair designs. The Whirlwind RoughRiderÔ is now being manufactured at the Kien Tuong factory in Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), the Corporacion Regional de Rehabilitacion del Valle in Cali, Colombia, and CE Mobility, Johannesburg, South Africa. Factories in Mexico and Inda are scheduled to come online by the end of 2008.

Whirlwind Wheelchair International - San Francisco State University - 1600 Holloway Avenue, SCI 251 San Francisco, Ca, 94132-4163, USA - 415-338-6277 http://www.whirlwindwheelchair.org/

Wheels for Humanity

Wheels for Humanity is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in North Hollywood, California. They refurbish donated wheelchairs and hand fit them to children and adults with disabilities in developing nations.

They then partner with international health-care organizations to identify those in greatest need. With a team of volunteer health care professionals, each recipient is individually fitted to the wheelchair that best fits their needs.

Many factors contribute to the great number of the world's disabled, such as spinabifida, cerebral palsy, polio, landmines, war, natural disasters, spinal cord injuries and lack of adequate and timely medical care. In many developing countries, if you can't walk by yourself, you must crawl or be carried and are forced to live a life of confinement.

UCP Wheels for Humanity is proud of our work to bring the freedom of mobility to thousands across the globe. Since 1996, UCP Wheels for Humanity has helped more than 40,000 people with disabilities in more than 66 developing nations gain increased mobility and dignity. They will continue to do so with the help of our many generous supporters.

UCP Wheels for Humanity - 12750 Raymer Street - Unit 40 - North Hollywood, California,  91605, Phone 818-255-0100    www.ucpwfh.org/

Hope Haven International Ministries

Hope Haven International Ministries partners with international relief organizations, service organizations, rehabilitation centers, disability organizations, local wheelchair shops, missionaries, pastors, children's homes, universities, parent's groups, foundations, and government agencies to ship, sponsor, identify recipients and distribute wheelchairs, walking aids and therapy equipment.

This ministry, as with all of Hope Haven's services, is "a ministry of Christian mercy based on the conviction that God's Word speaks to and directs all of life."

HHIM makes every effort to provide the most functional wheelchair for each recipient. This can be very challenging given the areas where our recipients live. There is no "one size fits all" wheelchair and often dozens of things have to be taken into consideration.

It didn't take us long to learn that developing nations have a higher percentage of children with disabilities than North America. We would send as many pediatric wheelchairs as possible on each shipment. But when you have 15% of your shipment as pediatric wheelchairs and 40% of those showing up to receive a wheelchair are children, it's hard to do a quality job.

In 1999 we were approached by 4 students in Dordt Collage's senior design class who wished to design something for HHIM. We showed them 5,000 feet of ¾" aluminum tubing that had been donated by a pediatric wheelchair company. We also showed them, hundreds of new wheelchair forks, castors, wheels, hand rims and tires. What they designed was a durable frame that coupled the tube with recycled plastic. 

Once we had the frame designed we took this to manufacturers, engineers, physical therapists, occupational therapists and rehabilitation technical suppliers to get input from them on how best to build a seating system that provided orthopedic support while also growing with the child.

Today over 1,000 Hope Haven Children's wheelchairs annually in 3 different sizes are manufactured in Ireton, Iowa with some parts made at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the Mike Durphy State Prison in Springfield, South Dakota.

We are also manufacturing the ROC chair at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

There are many opportunities for YOU to serve at HHIM:

• Refurbishing at one of the area repair shops
• Collecting used wheelchairs
• Serving as a storage and/or collection place
• Being a prayer partner
• Providing tools and other equipment
• Providing shipping from around the country to the repair shop in Rock Valley
• Donating equipment, materials and wheelchair parts
• Contributing financial support and/or sponsorships of wheelchairs
• Going on Wheelchair distribution trips

Hope Haven International Ministries - 2387 460th St  - Ireton, Iowa, 51027,
Phone (712) 278-1026   http://www.hopehaveninternational.org/